There are only a handful of players on Georgia Tech’s roster remaining from the program’s 2020 signing class, a class that included running back Jahmyr Gibbs, now in the NFL, embattled quarterback Jeff Sims, and the late Bryce Gowdy.
LaMiles Brooks was part of that group of 2020 prospects. He came to Atlanta to prepare for a unique season brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic, a season that tested his resolve, but one that helped shape his future.
“Freshman year coming in, with COVID going on, it was a lot,” Brooks said. “The masks and the way college football was operating in general, it almost gave me a feeling of, ‘Is this what college football’s about to be?’ I didn’t enjoy that much, as far as that aspect of it.”
But Brooks, now a 6-foot-2, 200-pound senior safety for the Yellow Jackets (2-1), did what he had done for much of his life to that point: He looked to his elders. Brooks gravitated toward former Jackets Tre Swilling, Juanyeh Thomas, Tobias Oliver and Zamari Walton, among others, for guidance and direction.
It was the start of the realization that Tech was a place that could provide lasting and impactful relationships if Brooks allowed it to.
“The relationships I’ve built within sports and outside of sports have been huge for me,” Brooks said. “The school. Graduating from here, a degree holds weight. Kind of seeing that through as well.”
Raised in Jacksonville, Florida, by his father, Marcus Brooks, and his mother, Cicely Brooks, two of the “hardest-working people I know,” said Brooks, football was a part of his life from an early age coming up as a student at Trinity Christian School. He mostly played running back and wide receiver until the spring practices ahead of his freshman season, when Trinity Christian coaches moved him to defensive back.
The position change was a pivotal moment in Brooks’ football future.
Trinity Christian assistant coach Matt Hardy recalled a day when Virginia Tech coaches came to recruit Shaun Wade, a former five-star prospect who would go on to be Big Ten defensive player of the year for Ohio State and now plays for the Los Angeles Chargers. Those coaches, said Hardy, were fixated for a while on Brooks, thinking they were actually watching Wade.
“He’s always been football smart, always had the common sense,” Hardy said of Brooks. “He always listened and you’d see what you told him being put to work. There’s no pushback with (Brooks). You tell him something — even now we’ll talk about stuff going on in college, maybe a play he could have made, there’s never any pushback. He’s always very critical of himself and knows how to evaluate himself. He knows what he needs to do to be to be great.”
Brooks was offered a scholarship by Virginia Tech that same day he was mistaken for Wade. That was the start of a prep career that included winning a state championship, becoming a four-star recruit and a team captain and earning scholarship offers from more than 20 programs, including Alabama when Brent Key was the Crimson Tide’s offensive line coach.
Key chuckled when recalling an underweight, undersized Brooks visiting Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as a high school freshman.
“He’s been here almost every step of the way that I’ve been here,” Key said. “Relationships with players go so much deeper than on the field. Do I wish he was able to be able to sustain and have that consistent run (injury-free) that I know he wants? Yeah, I do.
“But when a guy is banged-up, to see him still be like a coach on the field and take younger guys, and not be in a pouty mood and be to himself, whenever those things happen, he’s still out there encouraging guys, coaching guys, being a positive person. Learning how to be a leader sometimes is the hardest thing in leadership. I think over the course of the last two years, really to see his maturity and how he’s grown off the football field, he’s gonna be successful at whatever avenue he chooses.”
If Brooks suits up at 3:30 p.m. Saturday against Virginia Military Institute, it will mark his 45th game in the white and gold, eight short of tying the program record for the fourth-most games ever played by any Yellow Jacket. He’s closing in 1,600 career plays and 150 career tackles.
Brooks added he strives every day to return to his 2022 form, when he had 10 passes defended, made 52 tackles and returned one of his three interceptions for a touchdown. He also was one of Tech’s highest-rated defenders, according to Pro Football Focus, that season and was a third-team all-ACC selection.
But he also understands he now is in the position to emulate the former veteran players on the team who once helped him so many years ago.
“The biggest thing I’m trying to do, no matter what, is kind of pour into younger guys that are here, tell ‘em about my experiences, the good and the bad, things for them to look forward to,” Brooks said. “Kind of just breaking down what my five years have been and what to expect.”
Brooks, 22, hasn’t wasted any opportunities to make a difference off the field as well. He spent a week in Puerto Rico in 2022 to help rebuild hurricane-damaged houses. He has worked with For Others, an organization that helps prevent vulnerable children from being placed in the foster-care system. He annually takes part in the Michael Isenhour Toy Drive, and he has spent time with patients at Children’s Health Care of Atlanta.
With a degree in business and currently taking courses in economics, Brooks sees himself pursuing a career in sales when his football career comes to an end. But for now, there is still plenty of unfinished business on the field to attend to.
“We have a real chance to do something very special here,” Brooks said. “Most people wouldn’t have believed that my freshman year coming in. We’ve done a complete 180 since then. So kind of just keeping our eye on the prize, keeping the main thing the main thing.”
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